


Love Letter (for Lack of a Better Term)

by ellacj



Series: 52 Weeks of Swan Queen [51]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Letters, Love Letters, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."</p><p>-Mother Teresa</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Letter (for Lack of a Better Term)

**Author's Note:**

> week 52 coming on thursday. i can't believe it's finally happening. wow.

_Dear Regina,_

_I want to start off by telling you something you already know. I’ve never been one for clichés. The whole love at first sight, whirlwind romance, we’ll be together forever thing has never really been for me. But you make a damn good case for all those things._

_When I met you, it wasn’t love at first sight. Quite the opposite, actually. I hated you. You were the woman who took my son away from me, and I never imagined I could forgive you for that. It turns out I could, and I could do so much more._

_I can’t believe we’ve been together for four years now. It feels like so much longer, but at the same time like no time at all. It feels like just last week we were standing outside Granny’s during that disastrous welcome home party and arguing about Henry. If I’m being honest, I’m glad we still sometimes argue about Henry. We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t._

_You already know this, but I’m not great with words. But I’ve always been better at getting my feelings out in writing than trying to talk out loud, so I figure this is better than me trying to stand there and stumble over my tongue trying to get it all out. Yeah, this is definitely better. I’ve always been kind of jealous of how eloquent you are. You always seem to know exactly what to say._

_That’s what of the things I love about you, you know. That and a million other things that could fill 500 pages by themselves._

_Bear with me, here, because the sappy shit is about to start._

_I’ve never really had a home. The closest I’ve ever come was living in that damn car with Neal. I’ve always dreamed of living in a big house with someone I love, coming home every day from a 9-5 job and eating a sit-down dinner at a table with a tablecloth while the dog sits by my chair and begs for scraps. And maybe you and I don’t exactly fit that picture, but I think what we’ve got is pretty damn good. Maybe even better than my teenage imagination._

_Even if we’ll never have a dog._

_Because in my opinion, even though I never pictured myself as a mother, Henry is way better than any dog. I mean, he’s toilet trained. You can’t do much better than that._

_Sorry, back to being serious. I love living with you in a house so big I don’t know what to do with all the space, I love coming home from work to find you and Henry waiting for me, I love that you love to cook and that you garden obsessively and that you never miss an opportunity to teach me something I never knew about myself. I become a better person with every day I spend with you._

_I want to say thank you for never giving up on me. Even on my bad days where all I can do is think about what could go wrong, you always hold me together long enough to regain my balance. It takes a special kind of person to do that._

_Ever since I ran out of foster care and met Neal, I’ve been terrified to let myself love anyone. I destroy what I have a month or two after I get it. It’s just easier that way – no one can hurt me if I don’t give them the tools. But I’ve managed to hold onto you, because even from the very beginning I could tell you were worth the risk. It would be an honor to have my heart broken by you._

_And it was. You broke my heart, but you also knew exactly how to put the pieces back together. And isn’t that what love is? Falling apart only to fall right back together again?_

_You gave me this funny little thing called hope. Before I met you, hope was like one of those people you knew when you were a kid, and when you see them every now and again you get that feeling like you sort of know them, but not really. Like a familiar stranger. But once you were in my life, hope was my best friend that I have sushi with every week and see so much she starts to know me better than I know myself._

_That hope was how I knew that every time things seemed to go dark in our relationship, the sun would rise again soon. Things can never stay bad between us forever. We’re both too stubborn for that._

_So, anyway, at the end of all this rambling, I want to leave you with this. I’m not big on clichés, but being in love with you has made me feel butterflies, fireworks, all that nonsense they talk about in Nicholas Sparks movies. You and Henry mean the world to me. I never, ever plan on letting either of you two out of my life. I don’t want to imagine what my life would be like without you._

_So, here’s to us. I can’t wait to keep loving you for the rest of my life._

_Forever your love,_

_Emma_


End file.
